High School Reflection Paper

Growing up, I’d always been expected to do well in school. Which isn’t out of the ordinary, every parent wants their child to be successful and have a beneficial career. So, since good grades were what my parents expected that’s what I got. All throughout elementary, I strived to do my absolute best in every subject. At my sixth grade graduation I was awarded the Presidential Award for Academic Achievement, in my junior high years I did well as well. My eighth-grade year I achieved my goal of obtaining a 4.0 G.p.a. The first year of high school was nerve-racking but I still managed to keep my grades up. However, Sophomore year was definitely a bump in the road for me. In all my ten years of being in school (including head start and kindergarten)

Growing up is a journey we all have to travel. Everyone makes their own paths on an adventure of change. Along the way, the path will be beautiful and smooth-sailing, bumpy and rough, and sometimes conflict will appear out of the blue. At times forks in the road will show up and decisions must be made. Change is inevitable. Throughout a lifetime decisions made will be small and slight, or huge and major. It does not matter because one decision can change one’s path completely. Even the slightest change can make the difference. The decision could even be a change of hairstyle. A change in hairstyle could lead to a new fashion sense, to a new genre of music, to a completely new person. I myself have noticed many differences and similarities between my middle school self and now; and it is only the beginning.

About four years ago, I was just starting my first year of high school. During my previous tenure in middle school, I was basically an average student with multiple C’s and barely passing classes. So when I entered high school, I was not that enthusiastic about it and I continued the trend of not really caring about my grades in the 9th grade. As I became more aware of the opportunities I could get by receiving good grades, I began to actually care more about school and tried to get good grades. I began to do something that I never did before,

In 7th grade I was unfocused, unprepared, and childish. I didn’t know my grades would have an impact on my high school career. I thought everything that happened in middle school stayed in middle school so I focused on useless drama. I used to blame my C’s on bad teaching but now I realize I have no one else to blame but myself. I was the one coming to school unprepared to work not my teachers. Now I know all of my grades count. I have blossomed into a person I am proud of. This year I’ve made it my mission to actually pass not just get by. I now sit promptly in the front of the class and take notes. I focus on test scores and grades not drama that’s not even going to matter next week. I now know what’s important and what I should just leave

The transition from middle school to high school was difficult for me. I’d gone to very a progressive middle school where the students basically got to choose their own curriculum. I’d never had grades or a standard structure of any kind to measure my academic performance. Saint Mary’s, my high school, is college prep so the teachers move quickly, I am graded on everything, and expectations in general are much higher. For all of ninth grade I felt like I had been tossed into the deep end without knowing how to swim, and my grades reflected that mentality. Summer before tenth grade, I knew I couldn’t continue performing so poorly, so I began to study and to try and get a jump start on the next year’s curriculum. When school started I put much

I wasn’t the smartest kid in my school. I was just an average high schooler who was trying to pass high school, and go to college. One of the worst years that I had to encounter was freshmen year. Everything fell apart when I was a freshmen. My grades were falling like a like airplane with a dead engine. I wasn’t getting any help from any teachers; help from teachers would have made school a lot easier. I received D’s and F’s in all my classes. I was too tired of school, and there were times where I almost gave up. I knew giving up wouldn’t change my life instead it would get worse.

As my high school career comes to a close I often times sit back and reflect on moments where I failed to succeed or didn't live up to the expectations put forth by myself or my parents. The failure that often think back to is my report card from freshmen year. All through middle school I always received high marks and success in the classroom was something that came easy. I fully expected that trend to continue as I began my high school career. However, this was not the case in the slightest. Upon receiving my first quarter report card me as well as the rest of my family were stunned to realize that I had not performed up to my usual standards as my grades were much lower than anticipated. Though initially shaken by this news, I was confident

Parents, whether they're ready to go, financial aid, career choices, or to simply just get away, are all things that can influence a persons choice to go to college. Take parents for example, some of our parents may or may not have gone to college. For those parents who have, they would want to push their kids to be like them. For those who haven't, they would want to push their kids to be better than they were, to have a better education, and ultimately, a better job to take care of their own kids someday. They sometimes put too much pressure on their kids to go to college that their kids feel like that's their only option.

I increased my effort, but even then, I still did poorly, mainly with AICE Economics and AP Government. These two classes I have taken showed that tremendously as to where I have stood from other students. And, I just could not handle them, but I was too stubborn to really care. I tried to focus on those classes, but even then, my results were just mediocre. I just could not handle it? Did I learn? No I did not, I just wanted to make it up at the moment of where I am at. It was too late. I was below expectations, and I knew it. I knew I was kidding myself, believing that I should have been in the class, when my results show me otherwise. I really don’t know what one thing I could have done better, other than just the collective answer: myself. I should have done so many more things to prepare, I should have asked to my teacher or classmates specifically what I did wrong, instead of just thinking I what have done wrong individually. It was mainly out of embarrassment for myself. I thought so highly of myself, when I wasn’t, I became so conceited of where I am at, when I should have asked for help, when I should have been more focused, when I should understand, that sometimes I couldn’t get it all. I can improve all I want, and work more later on in life. But, even then, with all that work and effort feeling gone. And that I want to make it up, all I get is a result, a result that just would not be fixed with the effort I

High school was ultimately my downfall. Before high school, I was one of those kids who could get away with not really trying and still get solid A’s and B’s. High school hit me like a train after that. Classes got much harder, but I just shook it off and breezed through without really trying. My grades took a hard hit. Now that I’ve actually looked into colleges and looked at grade requirements, I realize I made a big mistake. I know I could’ve gotten much better grades, if I had just put in a little more effort. If I had buckled down, thought about my future, and stopped putting video games before school. I could potentially not be accepted to the colleges I want to go to because

Not only was I failing in my subjects, but I was diagnosed with ADD. It wasn’t until second semester was I called to my counselor office, which I would find myself repeatedly for the rest of Middle School. I started being tutored for Math and Science, which were my main failing subject of the year. Of course, I didn’t feel comfortable talking to my tutor about my grades, not asking her any questions for an hour and getting the homework wrong afterwards. Soon, it started to get better and better. My grades rose from D’s and F’s to A’s and B’s and I was really happy. Throughout the rest of my life until now, I worked hard to make sure I kept my grades higher than a D. Of course, it went through its and down, but that single memory from sixth grade influences me about who I am

Freshman year of high school was one of my most complicated years of high school. It was my first year in completely new school with all new people. When the first day came around i was excited but also very nervous. I wasn’t expecting to struggle as much as i did throughout the year. Pre-ap Algebra was going to be the death of me, math was my weakest subject but i still wanted to believe in myself. Although things aren't turning out well for me i started to see myself failing which had never happened before. All throughout elementary and middle school i had nothing but A’s & B’s so failing was never something i was use to. I started to realize that i wasn't able to learn the way my teacher would teach but i didn't want to put the blame on

My academic performance in high school always had its up and downs. I graduated with a 3.2 GPA, even though it is not the best, I still am very proud of it. My first year of high school, I was the teacher’s pet but unfortunately that lasted for a year. Once I found a new group of friends, it got me into making bad decisions, and that was when my grades started looking poorly, and my weaknesses started to surface.

Previously teaching was something that teachers did. The role of teachers was known to be the center of the classroom, they were expected to know everything about a subject matter and be able to explain it well to students. The role of the students was to learn by listening, practicing and working hard. We now know that teaching and learning are closely related. By understanding the relationship of teaching and learning we can understand the concept of Mathematizing. Mathematizing is the process of constructing meaning. This is accomplished by letting students develop their own strategies and questions and letting them explore them through classroom discussion with their peers. (Young Mathematicians at work) This can also be accomplished by allowing students to use real world examples to help deepen their understanding of the concepts.My understanding of this topic has evolved over this course I was always viewed teachers as the know it all of the classroom and the students roll was to retain as much as possible because they were going to need to use it on a test in the future. Learning the new concept of mathematizing I recognize that a teacher must also act as a facilitator of the classroom. Allowing students to think freely make mistakes and make sense of problems and concepts on their own. While also leaving space for the students to teach the teacher or help the teacher understand what they are thinking and how they came to their answer.

School is something that is required for everyone to take. It is where everyone goes to learn through the academic classes. Many go in hopes of being able to achieve their dream by attending school every year. But many others, including myself, believe that a majority of the classes that we have to take do not support us for the future we are trying to pursue. Sure, the classes we take in elementary school are the proper stepping stools for future development, but I’m not talking about those classes. I’m talking about the classes we take in high school. I go to a Vo Tech high school which helps you choose your career path through the Career and Transitions class (CAT). Only certain parts of the career and transitions class are actually useful. We had a good month to look at the options that we could choose to have as our career area for the next three years of high school. The rest of CAT class was extremely unnecessary. We had to read a book about habits that a “highly effective teen” would have. We spent practically 3 whole marking periods on this book and I believe this could have been spent on something more beneficial for our future. This book was meant for us to change our bad habits into good ones, but nobody had taken this class seriously because they realized that there was no reason to do something like this. During that time, I wished that we could have learned about the Spanish language because it would be a lot more enjoyable and wouldn’t be a waste of time when